Room 6 News 12th Feb
We have now had two busy and productive weeks of school where we have been establishing our routines and kopapa for how we will run the classroom. As part of this children have had their input into expressing what is important for them - and the key words they have settled on are FUN, LEARNING and RESPECT. The class will continue to explore these themes to better understand how these principles can apply to them as learners.
Here are Olivia's ideas about RESPECT.
One of the key learning approaches I use in Room 6 is LEARN, CREATE, SHARE. We have been LEARNING about respect by talking to each other, checking a dictionary meaning and thinking about why this is important for us as a class. The chart like Anais above is an example of CREATE. , The sharing part is often done via children's blogs and once they are set up children will post evidence of their learning so that you can join in the discussion and give your child feedback on what they have done. Currently children are "banking" work so that they will have content to post once their blog is active.
Some big events this week include our syndicate assembly. Our assemblies are held several times a term, and give us the chance to develop and practice skills, before presenting in whole school assemblies in the Memorial Hall.
At this week's assembly Room 6 shared 'first day at school' stories.
Here is what Ivan shared
My first day of school wasn’t at this school. It was in a place called Newlands Primary School in Johnsonville. Seeing how big the school was terrified me!!! The first thing that I saw was that everyone, I mean EVERYONE wore the same uniform! My first class was Room 10, the junior of the junior’s class. When the teacher introduced me to the class, I felt like a nervous-wreck. The only thing that came out of my mouth was a little “Hi.”, then the class shouted “HELLO IVAN!!!”. The force of the noise made me feel like I was being pushed to the wall and my eardrums were ringing. All the children giggled at my startled face. The second thing the teacher did was to put me in a group. The groups were Jellyfish, Starfish, Dolphins and Sharks. One of them was one that I didn’t know about back then. We’ll get to that later. I was put in the Jellyfish, and guess what, that was the one that I didn’t know about! I literally had no clue what the heck was a jellyfish, I was like, “Is it made of jelly with a fish inside? A jelly that could swim? A jelly with a fish-tail?!” I had no clue what it was!!!!!!! The teacher was a major but she was a kind and sweet-hearted woman which raised her voice only when she needs to. Newlands School was completely different than this school but that’s what makes schools unique, you know? At morning tea, someone took me around the school and showed me some places. I won’t say his name because if he was here he would be embarrassed. Let’s just say he was as cheeky as a cat with catnip. And that’s basically it about my past.
We also had our first school powhiri to officially welcome our new families, students and teachers.
Two of our Room 6 students, Ian and Joshua T were part of the group welcomed.
Classes arrive on the turf in preparation for our fist school powhiri.
And of course the very popular "Wheels Day" which included a free breakfast at school was a lot of fun and there were a wide variety of wheeled vehicles that joined in the fun, all supervised by senior students from the Year 7-8 syndicate.
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| Kieran was one of the many children and parents to receive a free sausage for breakfast from the sausage sizzle. |
Children head over the new ramps built this week, watched by our principal Bevan Campbell.
Lucas on the move!
This week I had several interesting conversations with some school visitors this week. The first described her sense of disorientation coming into the school. She couldn't quite figure out where things were - all the buildings and the physical layout of the school had changed since she was a pupil here. The second was a grandparent who couldn't get over how much classrooms had changed since her time at school. Children sitting on sofas, on stools or lying on the floor to work were all totally unfamiliar concepts to her. However it is not just the physical changes to schools that can leave adults a bit bewildered. Many of our parents struggle to understand how and why education has changed. At our :"Meet the teacher" evening next Monday, you will hear a presentation by staff explaining some of these changes and what it means for your child. I hope to meet many of you on Monday's night and you will be able to meet Relish, Beaky, our colourful fish and explore your child's learning environment in Room 6.
Room 6 News 2nd Feb
Dear Room 6 parents.
It has been a successful first day back at school and the children were enthusiastic about being in Room 6. Both the birds and the tropical fish were popular with the children, and Beaky spend some time out of the cage and wandering around the tables.
It was great to say “Hi!” To a number of you today. I appreciated meeting some of our new parents this morning for the first time, while for others it was renewing relationships from when I have taught older siblings.
School today.
Today we have worked on establishing the routines and ways of working in Room 6. Students have been introduced to some of the Rm 6 principles of being self-managing, and the focus has been on being responsible for their own belongings. This includes their cloakroom items, their new stationery, and their work space. Thank you to parents who organized the naming of your child’s stationery – it means that things are more easily retained and less likely to get lost.
Some of our 435 Waikanae pupils at this morning's assembly
We have begun discussions around what self-managing might look like – your child had to decide where and with whom they would sit, and to think carefully about how that might affect their learning. A number of children chose the learning caves as the best environment to support their learning while others chose benches, desks, the floor, and two chose the standing table. We have utilized our “Voice levels” chart to moderate classroom noise levels and recorded our goals for caring for our belongings on our goals sheet. In today’s maths session we have handed out our Dragon Maths books ready for tomorrow and started work on numeracy, covering odd and even numbers, and doubling as an introduction to learning our times tables. I ran a workshop on doubling numbers and it was great to see several children who were not confident, opting in, and after some teaching, to see them responding positively and finding success with the activity.
Times Tables
Knowing all times tables up to 10 x 10 is an expectation for children at the Yr 5-6 level. Many children know some but not all of them. It would be a positive step to have all children master their times tables by the end of the year.
Homework.
Being a short week there is no set homework. However you can encourage your child to start work on unknown tables, and to do some reading as well.
Class newsletter photos
Previous feedback from parents about the class emails and newsletters that have included photos from the class has been very positive. It enables parents to feel more informed and connected to their child’s schooling. If you have any concerns or questions about your child’s photo being included in my newsletters which are sent to Room 6 families, please contact me.
School Newsletter.
Hard copies have been dispensed with so if you didn’t receive the email use this link to access the school newsletter. It has lots of school-wide information and community notices.
Room 6 at work in their new class
Krystal chose a learning cave as her work space.
Class Questionnaire
If you have not yet completed the class questionnaire I mentioned in my last email, please use the following link to access it. (Click here)
Kind regards,
Peter Corlett
(Class teacher)
awesome
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